What is Mount2000?

Mount2000 is a Catholic Retreat for High School students. It is coordinated by the Seminarians of Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD.

The name 'Mount2000' came from the celebration of the Jubilee in 2000. For the last 20 years, Mount2000 has given students the opportunity to encounter Christ. We offer this by frequently providing the sacraments of the Mass and Confession. We also offer Eucharistic Adoration, talks from guest speakers, and music concerts throughout the weekend.

What differentiates Mount2000 from other High School Catholic retreats? At Mount2000, each group is paired with a seminarian (a student preparing for the Catholic priesthood) during the weekend. That seminarian will participate in the retreat with the group assigned to them. This includes eating meals together with them, teaching them how to pray the bible, and offering time for conversation. With almost 1500 high school students at Mount2000, having a seminarian minister to each group adds a uniquely personable element to the retreat experience.

We hope that you will consider joining us at Mount2000 this year. Please be sure to check our pages on this website for more information. Feel free to contact us with any general questions.

Ad Fontem

This year's theme is Ad Fontem, which is Latin for “Back to the Source.” We will be focused on the Eucharist, as Jesus present in the Eucharist is “the Source and Summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.” The Eucharist is a source of grace for us as we go through life, and nourishes the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity in us.

•Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that He has said and revealed to us, and that the Church proposes for our belief, because He is truth itself. By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God” (Catechism, 1814). The Eucharist is a sign which instructs us. It nourishes and strengthens our faith by what it signifies: the wisdom, love, and power of God manifested to us by Christ in His Real Presence and in His Sacrifice.

•Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit (Catechism, 1817). The Eucharist nourishes our hope, at once pointing back to God's salvific deeds, especially Jesus' death and resurrection, which provides the firm ground for our hope; and forward to what we hope for, the coming of the kingdom and eternal life of communion with the Triune God.

•Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God (Catechism, 1822). John Paul II wrote that the "Christian life is expressed in the fulfilling of the greatest commandment, that is to say, in the love of God and neighbor, and this love finds its source in the blessed Sacrament, which is commonly called the sacrament of love. The Eucharist signifies this charity, and therefore recalls it, makes it present and at the same time brings it about” (Dominicae Cenae, 5).

As a model for these virtues, we have the Blessed Virgin Mary, as “in a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace” (Catechism, 968).

(Mark Brumley’s article in the May/June 1996 issue of The Catholic Faith was a resource for this section.)